Import Points of Sale

Registering points of sale is an important step in operating Involves Stage, as they are the establishments visited by the field team. The POS has a direct relationship with routes, regionals, macroregionals, network and banner, and other operations of Involves Stage.

In this article, see the step-by-step process for importing Points of Sale into Involves Stage. Below, you will find all the necessary information:

• Purpose of the import
• Before you start
• Import points of sale
• Import result
• Update POS already registered in Involves Stage

Purpose of the import

The Import Points of Sale option aims to facilitate the registration and updating of POS data in Involves Stage.

Before you start

Check the information you should know before starting this process.

• Registering POS by import also allows automatic registration of Macroregionals and Regionals, and Network and Banner data in the system.
• The import template is a spreadsheet in XLSX format and contains fields similar to manual registration.

Import points of sale

The process of importing points of sale has two steps:

• Step 1: download the template, fill in the spreadsheet with the data to be imported, and save it as a CSV file.
• Step 2: upload the file to import into Involves Stage.

See below the step-by-step guide to complete both stages of the import.

Step 1 - Fill out the spreadsheet

To start the import, follow these steps:

1. Go to Menu > Points of Sale > Points of Sale in Involves Stage;
2. Click the Options button in the lower left corner of the screen;
3. Then click Import;
4. In the Import pop-up, click the Download Template button
   
   
    
5. After downloading, open the template file in your spreadsheet editor, such as Excel or Google Sheets;
6. Fill in the required fields in the spreadsheet: POS Name, Banner, Network, Regional, and mark the status in the Active column. Use Yes for active status and No for inactive status of the POS in the system.

How to fill in the information in the spreadsheet?

Before saving the file, it is important to check the data in the columns. See below tips on how to fill out the columns in the POS import spreadsheet:

• ID: this is the identification number of the point of sale in Involves Stage. The system defines this number used for bulk data editing. Therefore, leave this column blank on the first import.
• POS Name: use a naming convention that the field team already knows, or make it easier to recognize the store by building the POS name with the structure: store name + store number + neighborhood and/or city. Remember: each point of sale must be unique.
• Banner: if the banner is already registered in the system, fill in the banner name exactly as it is in Involves Stage. If there is any difference in letters in the name, the system will identify this banner as new information.
• Network: Fill in the Network of the point of sale with the correct name already registered in the system or register it together with the POS import.
• POS Type: this information relates to the execution format in the store, that is, how the product will be displayed. For example, we can have a standard store, shopping mall store, convenience store, etc.
• POS Profile: the profile of the point of sale is the definition of the revenue range. Each can be categorized as Profile A, Profile B, Profile C, or Up to 4 Check-outs, Up to 8 Check-outs, etc.
• POS Channel: the channel of the point of sale can be used to identify whether the store is retail, wholesale, distributor, or Key Account.
• Regional: fill in the regional with the correct name of one already registered in the system. Remember that each point of sale must be linked to a Regional, so be careful with the correct spelling.
• CNPJ: filling in the company's CNPJ is optional and you can enter any type of character. The field accepts spaces, periods, and slashes.
• Address: the fields City, State, Street, Number, Complement, Neighborhood, and ZIP Code are optional. This information will be used for automatic geolocation. In the ZIP Code field, you can enter any type of character. The field accepts spaces, periods, and slashes.
• Latitude and Longitude: latitude and longitude are generated automatically by the system, so you can leave these fields blank. If you have this information and want to fill it in, at the time of import you must leave the Georeference Imported Records option inactive, because if checked, the system ignores the filled coordinates, prioritizing automatic data generated by the POS address.
• Retail Name and Local Code: Involves Stage allows integration with the Neogrid system, a supply chain management software. In import registration, two fields can be filled: Retail Name and Local Code, extracted from your operation with the software. You must be careful to fill in the field correctly, as this affects the processing of integrated data.
• Active: this field refers to the Status of the point of sale, and must be registered only as Yes or No. Use Yes for active status and No for inactive status of the POS in the system.

After filling in the spreadsheet with all the necessary information, save a copy of the file in CSV (comma-separated) format. If you prefer, make a backup of the XLSX file, because the CSV format removes formulas and some formats.

Step 2 - Import the file into Involves Stage

After filling in the import template information, follow the steps below:

1. In the Import pop-up, click Upload file;
   
   
    
2. Search on your computer for the file in CSV format (comma-separated);
3. If you want to enable geolocation, activate the Georeference Imported Records option;
   
   
4. Click the Import button;
5. A progress bar will indicate the import status. You can leave the import running in the background and continue with other tasks while this happens. If the page is refreshed or closed for any reason, there is no loss of what has been loaded so far.
6. Done! After these steps, the points of sale will already be registered in the system, and you can define your field team's routes.

Import result

During import, the system may find problems with the spreadsheet data. In this case, you can easily edit the data in the Import Result pop-up or download the error file.

The Import Result pop-up shows the total number of imported items and the number of registrations with pending and corrected errors. You can edit the fields in red, or if you prefer, you can ignore the point of sale by checking the do not import option.

After correcting or ignoring the items with errors, the Import button becomes available for you to click and send the corrected records to complete your import.

 

Check the article how to access the error report to learn more about import error reports in Involves Stage.

Update POS already registered in Involves Stage

It may be necessary to update the data of your points of sale already registered in Involves Stage. Use the import POS option to update multiple points of sale at the same time.

This option replaces the information of existing points of sale fields with the new information from the import file. The process is the same as you followed to import points of sale, but there are a few other things to consider.

• If you need to change your points of sale database information in the future, you will export the information already with IDs automatically defined by the system. When editing this information, keep the ID column unchanged so the system recognizes the data when importing again.
• When editing points of sale by import, be careful that they are not in any employee’s route. If they are, the system will not allow their editing.